Throughout this week at PushOn my time has been almost entirely dedicated to research about social media as well as some small things such as an introduction to blogging and an introduction to SEO. Social media is what most teenager’s lives revolve around. I can’t name one of my friends who doesn’t have Facebook or doesn’t watch YouTube. Although it sounds bad it’s true that social media provides a simpler form of human interaction. Over time social media changes hugely. Even in the past three years there have been dramatic changes in the different forms of social media used. In 2012 the most used social app among people my age was twitter. However, trends are different not only at different times but in different places. In 2012, the most used form of social media among my peers was BBM. Whereas, now it is YouTube. I conducted a survey among a small percentage of my form to see how much time they spend on social media and what social medias they spend it on.As you can see things like WhatsApp, BBM and MySpace e.t.c. have been almost completely phased out and replaced by newer platforms such as Instagram and Snapchat.

Just for fun I also decided to see what forms of technology my peers use and compare it to some research conducted by Mintel a few months earlier. Mintel found that the Laptop is the most used form of technology:(Mintel research on technology used, March 2015)

Whereas I found that touchscreen devices like smartphones and tablets were much more common with my friends (My research on technology used, December 2015)

The last bit of research that I conducted among my friends was about the different social media platforms they have used in the last month and compared it to Mintel again:(Mintel research on social media platforms used, March 2015)

(My research on social media platforms used, December 2015)

Even though the two sets of Data are only eight months apart, you can clearly see the rise in percentages of people using the different social media’s.

As I mentioned earlier, many forms of social media have been phased out and replaced by more modern platforms. Using google trends you can see how over the past few years their have been crossovers between the older social media’s and the newer ones, and how the newer ones are still growing and will most likely continue to grow (that is until something bigger and better comes along again).(YouTube vs Skype searches, January 15th 2016) (Red: YouTube Blue: Skype)

Now a little bit about each of the individual Social Medias that people my age use. Instagram is one of the most commonly used social media apps/websites. It revolves almost entirely around pictures but also has a direct messaging feature. People use it to watch funny videos and look at funny pictures. They also use it to see what friends are doing and what celebrities are doing e.t.c. Finally, people use it to post selfies and annoying pictures of everything they eat! Nevertheless, Instagram is a fun and promising form of social media.

Twitter is similar to Facebook in that it is used for more written updates rather than being picture based. Twitter is probably the most instant social media. By that I mean if you want to find breaking news it will be on twitter minutes before everything else as there are more constant updates. Twitter is also the hub for sports updates e.g. transfer news, so many people like it for that reason. And finally, one of the main reasons that I use it is to see just how embarrassing my Dad’s tweets are and decide whether he needs to take them down.

Snapchat is relatively new compared to most other social medias, and like other newer social medias it revolves around pictures. Snapchat has many different features such as instant messaging, normal snapchats, snapstreaks and snapchat stories. Instant messaging provides an alternative to text, snapstreaks are just a bit of fun and snapchat stories are a really clever addition as they allow you to post something to your story that can only be seen for twenty four hours. People use snapchat because you can share photos/ moments, you can add things to your story which is like a broadcasted message and finally it can again be used to see what celebrities are doing. “Teens are about 3.5 x as likely to use Snapchat as the average internet user…and more than 40% of them are using the platform in the UK and Canada. Furthermore, it is more popular among US teenagers than either Facebook Messenger or WhatsApp.”(Warc, May 2015) “The report said Snapchat remains “a key app to watch” because, again, it is so popular with teenagers.” (Warc, May 2015)

Facebook is the most used social media platform in the world. Worldwide, there are over 1.55 billion monthly active Facebook users (MAUs) which is a 14 percent increase year over year. (Source: Facebook as of 9/30/15) What this means for you: In case you had any lingering doubts, statistically, Facebook is too big to ignore. 4.5 billion likes generated daily as of May 2013 which is a 67 percent increase from August 2012 (Source: Facebook). Photo uploads total 300 million per day. Every 60 seconds on Facebook: 510 comments are posted, 293,000 statuses are updated, and 136,000 photos are uploaded. Among my friends Facebook is used to watch funny videos and pranks e.t.c., to see what friends and family are doing, to keep in touch with family members from all around the world and to organize things such as meet ups. One more thing is that the group chat feature allows us to share things in a more private way to just one person or a select group of people that you choose

YouTube is the second most used social media in the world and the most used by people my age. YouTube is unique in that it has an entertainment factor that the others don’t and watching your favorite YouTubers can offer a simple ans more instant alternative to TV. YouTube has over a billion users, almost one-third of all people on the Internet, and every day people watch hundreds of millions of hours on YouTube and generate billions of views. YouTube overall, and even YouTube on mobile alone, reaches more 18-34 and 18-49 year-olds than any cable network in the U.S. The number of hours people spent watching videos on mobile is up 100% y/y. YouTube is used for a variety of different reasons but the main ones are: It is the most entertaining, to watch YouTubers, funny fails and vloggers, to watch football compilations and to watch gaming videos. Furthermore, many people use YouTube for their own channels. Running your own channel is fun to do and if you’re are successful a good source of income.

One more thing I would like to mention is social gaming. Social gaming accounts for a huge amount of the internet’s traffic. A new poll by the Pew Research Center finds that 80 percent of American kids between ages 12 and 17 have a game console. Social gaming is a fun and easy way to communicate and do fun things with your friends. For example, after I have done my homework the first thing that I do is go on my Xbox, join a party and a game and start talking and playing with my friends. Once again, although it may sound bad its true that social gaming like FIFA is an easier way to do activities with your friends that doesn’t involve too much effort. As well as this the BBC have recently said that they are considering televising competitive gaming which could be huge in terms of views especially from people my age. When I go onto YouTube the main thing that I, and most of my friends, watch is gaming. It is fun to watch especially if the YouTuber gives funny commentary. This could be a huge success if BBC , and any other channel that plan to televise this, advertise it right. Not only do they need to advertise it on their own TV channels but they also need to advertise on Games Consoles home menu’s and relevant YouTube videos as this is where you will find the people who would be interested in watching it. One more thing they could do is invite famous gamers such as the Sidemen e.t.c. to come and play as that would also attract attention.

Recently I have been conducting some research on my work experience at PushOn. Almost all football clubs use social media. It is an easy way of informing your fans, spreading news and in many cases making money. Social media is rapidly growing, therefore the accounts of football clubs such as Real Madrid, Liverpool fc and Manchester United are growing rapidly in terms of followers/likes e.t.c.

It isn’t just social media where football clubs popularity is increasing, using google trends you can clearly see the increase in searches for football clubs on google since 2004.(Barcelona interest over time worldwide 13/01/16)

(Manchester City interest over time worldwide 13/01/16)

One football club who have some very interesting things going on at the moment are Leicester City. Leicester made the comeback of dreams to prevent relegation at the end of last season, and they have now carried that form into the new season. They stormed to the top of the table and only now, in January, are they starting to trail off. Due to Leicester’s current league success they are becoming better known across Europe as well as the UK. (Interest for Leicester City F.C. over time in the UK 13/01/16)

(Interest for Leicester City F.C. over time worldwide 13/01/16)

Someone who has helped Leicester to their recent success is a man named Jamie Vardy. Jamie Vardy is becoming a bit of a fans favorite not just at Leicester but with anyone that follows the premier league. He has been putting in some excellent performances at Leicester and also broke a premier league record for most consecutive games scored in (11)! Jamie Vardy’s name is getting more and more well known. There are also some phrases associated with him that are going viral. (Jamie Vardy interest over time 13/01/16)(‘Chat shit get banged’ searches over time 13/01/16)

Leicester’s popularity is now allowing them to grow as a football club as they are gaining more searches on google, more Facebook likes and more twitter followers. As they become better known they can bring in more money as well as attracting better players, and in doing so gain more followers. It goes around in a cycle ultimately ending in Leicester being a much more popular club than they were in 2013. Currently Leicester have 292,757 followers and sit in 108th out of all football clubs. This is excellent growth considering that they didn’t make it into the top 150 last year. (Leicester twitter followers 14/01/15)

Leicester’s recent growth on social media means that they attract people to other events associated with the club. This can help charities e.t.c as well as bringing in more money for Leicester. Leicester utilize different social media’s in different intelligent ways as well. You can see that player specific news such as transfer news are posted through twitter first as it is more instant and things like transfers get more re-tweets on twitter than shares on Facebook. However, Facebook is the main platform for posting videos like interviews of the players and also things like the calendar for the year and television schedules generally get more shares and likes on Facebook than on twitter. You can see this using BuzzSumo:(Leicester news shares 14/01/16)

In conclusion, the success that we have seen Leicester produce on the pitch has carried over to their social presence. They are rapidly gaining followers on Facebook and twitter and utilizing it to promote things associated with their football club. Leicester are also using some interesting marketing strategies via their King Power sponsors and that is also increasing popularity. Jamie Vardy and Riyad Mahrez’s popularity is also a big factor in Leicester’s increase of followers e.t.c and it will be interesting to see how the online world reacts if Leicester make a big signing, because that could mean another leap forward in their development online. Only Manchester United have a higher growth rate at the moment in terms of followers and likes and it will be intriguing to see what strategies Leicester implement to keep this growth rate up. I think that big name signings, success on the pitch and more overseas advertising will be the best ways for them to continue developing as a club. In my opinion Leicester will continue to develop as a club but their growth rate will surely slow down. However, everyone thought that their form would have trailed off by November but its January 14th and Leicester are 2nd (Arsenal only ahead on goal difference). I think its fair to say this club has some exciting times ahead.

p.s. if you’re free Friday night i hear that ‘Jamie Vardy’s having a party’

This is my first blog post and it is about my experience at PushOn. I am in year ten and currently out on my work experience. For my work experience I am spending a week at PushOn which is a company specializing in marketing/ web design. I am very interested in social media and sports marketing so I thought this would be an excellent placement for me.

I remained in contact with the management director before the placement. He requested that I put together a CV. At fourteen years old this was a difficult task as I hadn’t worked anywhere or received any qualifications. Nevertheless I did my best and emailed it. As I had expected, it wasn’t good enough. I needed to add more detail and evidence my business skills. I re-drafted my CV and tried to do everything that he had told me to. This time it was good enough. Around a day later I was told that as part of my interview he would like me to create a presentation about social media and how people my age group use it. This was a much easier task for me compared to the CV. I started by listing all the forms of social media people my age use. I then went on to explain why we used them e.t.c and then I did a small section about social media that has been phased out and also social gaming. I presented this in the interview and it went very well along with the rest of the interview. I was told that the only thing I could have done to improve would be to back up my points with facts, figures and some of my own research. So I found some research conducted by people at Mintel, Warc e.t.c. I then used this as a comparison to some surveys that I had conducted among my peers.

My first day at PushOn was on January 11th. I was told I would be working 10am to 5pm. I got there a bit earlier to make a good impression. I arrived at 9:45 and their office manager gave me a very short induction. I then put my lunch in the fridge and it was go time. I was introduced to everyone on the marketing team and some people in client services e.t.c. Jonny (the marketing team leader who I would be doing most of my work with) told me that I would be doing blog work today.

Firstly, I had to research some blogging platforms that I would use to create mine on. This was a very difficult process as there were lots of excellent choices. I started off by doing a simple search on google for ‘best free blogging platforms.’ This came up with a website called http://www.websitebuildertop10.com. It ranked the platforms on their templates, features, value and overall score on their website. The top website was Sitebuilder so I made a note of that. I then went onto another website called thenextweb.com and found a review of the top 18 blogging sites. I instantly recognized the second one as my Dad and many of the people I was working with used it. There were many positive reviews about it as well so that was a website that I was definitely considering. The other platform I was considering had been recommended by some of the other people in my office and it was called ‘Blogger.com.’ I had narrowed it down to three. I decided to rule out Sitebuilder as I had never heard anything about it other than on this website. In the end I made the choice to go with WordPress as I knew many people that used it and it was known for being simple so would be great for a beginner in the blogging world.

I set up my wordpress account and the next step was to think of a name. I wanted my blog to be about social media whilst also having a section about sports. This was another difficult task so I decided to ask my Dad (as he runs a blog) and some of my friends. We came up with the idea of eSports. However, eSports was taken so I had to use eSports1404 (14/04 is my birthday).

At twelve o’clock everyone went to eat lunch. After everyone had eaten a few of us sat down in the lounge to have a game of FIFA 16 on the PS4. I played on a team with Daryl against Tunde and Alex. We lost the first game, drew the second and won the third.

Once the blog was named ,and I had played some FIFA, I had to do some customizing so that I could give it the look I wanted. I used some other blogs for inspiration and decided I wanted a theme picture along the top and some drop down menus with different sections. I was given help with how to do this by some members of the PushOn team as well as watching some video tutorials. Then I encountered a slight problem as the menu that I was setting up wasn’t saving my changes. I tried to fix this but couldn’t quite find the solution. After working on the same problem for almost two hours I decided that I needed to try a different task to clear my head. I asked Jonny if I could start writing my first blog post and attempt the menu problem again at home. He said that was a good idea so I started to write about what I had done so far in that day. I continued with this until it was time for me to leave and in the end got a lot of work done on this first post.

Overall my first day at PushOn was informative, interesting and fun. I will do at least one more post about my time here by the end of the week.